Saturday, February 27, 2016

An alleged Staten Island mobster was living like a gangster when cops
busted into his home and found him stocked with sex pills, drugs, wads
of cash and about a half dozen guns, according to officials.
That was just some of the evidence that connects Anthony "Skinny "
Santoro to the Bonanno crime family, prosecutors said during the Great
Kills man's trial Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Santoro and his three co-defendants - Nicholas Santora, 73, Vito
Badamo, 53, and Ernest Aiello, 36 - are charged with enterprise
corruption, including gambling and loansharking.
Santoro, 52, dressed in a beige suit and white-collared shirt, was
jovial and easy going listening to testimony about when cops abruptly
busted in on him and his girlfriend at 6 a.m. back in February 2012.
He even laughed when his attorney held up a small white T-shirt the
prosecution claims he used to clean his guns up against his not so
skinny frame.
"I don't think it fits him," joked defense attorney Adam Konta, who represents Santoro.
During the early-morning raid of Santoro's Tanglewood Drive
residence, authorities collected seven firearms, several rounds of
ammunition, 24 Viagra pills, $45,000 in cash and nine bags of marijuana
found in several safes hidden throughout the home, NYPD Det. Shawn
Ricker testified.
The 15-man team also searched a black Cadillac sedan, but didn't find anything.
Santoro, Ricker said, was courteous and chivalrous to the detective after the crew had completed the two-hour search.
Santoro shook the detective's hand and told him, " 'No hard feelings.
You're just doing your job. I take full responsibility. She has nothing
to do with it.'"
The defendant was referring to his girlfriend, Christine Alfieri.
On cross-examination, Konta coaxed the detective into admitting that
the Tanglewood home and the Cadillac belonged to Santoro's girlfriend.
"Did you ask to see the deed to the home or did you check the car's registration in the glove compartment," the lawyer said.
"No," the detective replied.
Santoro, the defense claims, owns a home on Eagan Avenue in Annadale,
and that's the address on his license where he receives mail.
The detective said he was unaware of that information and only searched the home the search warrant was issued for.
"Did you know the house was mutli-family dwelling," Konta asked.
"It was my understanding it was a single-family home, but I never
researched it," Ricker said. "I was executing the address on the
warrant."
Except, Ricker testified that one of the guns was found in the
nightstand in the basement. However, the basement was rented out to
another individual not involved in the sting, Konta pointed out.
The cash, the defense claims, belongs to Alfieri's son, who lives at
the Tanglewood home. But, prosecutors said, the girlfriend never claimed
any of the items from the seizure.
"You mean she never came down and said, 'These guns and drugs are mine,'" Konta sarcastically asked.
What the defense didn't find funny was that the detective didn't know
if any DNA or fingerprint testing was done on any of the guns, and said
none of the firearms were traced back to any crimes.
Ricker also said he removed a bullet from one of the guns, but didn't recall if he was wearing gloves.
"You weren't worried you would get your fingerprints on the gun?" another defense attorney asked.
The defendants were busted in July 2013 when authorities dismantled the nine-man Bonanno family crew.
The state claims Santora, the crime family's alleged ringleader, was
in charge of an Internet gambling site, sold prescription drugs, like
oxycodone and Viagra, on the black market, and the other three
defendants were his associates.
Santora, who sat in the courtroom handcuffed to a wheelchair,
inspired the character played by the late Bruno Kirby in the 1997 film
"Donnie Brasco."
Testimony resumes 11:30 a.m. Monday.
The trial began in early February and is expected to last for at least two months.